The first attempt to bring the video game plumber to the big screen failed spectacularly: “Super Mario Bros.” from 1993 is a real trash festival and is still used as a textbook example of failed video game conversions. In addition to Dennis Hopper as King Koopa, Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo also appeared on camera as the plumber brothers.
Luigi actor John Leguizamo already pronounced his latest fall criticism on the script and cast list of the current Mario animated film and criticized the lack of inclusion in the casting decisions. The actor especially regrets that no voice from Latin America has been recorded. At the beginning of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, the actor repeated his criticism and announced that he does not want to see the film because of the chosen voices:
“No, I’m not watching that. They could have included a Hispanic character. […] My profession was cutting edge at the time and then they stopped trying to innovate. You screwed up inclusion. […] Just occupied some people from Latin America! We are 20% of the population. We are the largest group of people of color and we are underrepresented.”
Everyone must decide for themselves how justified John Leguizamo’s criticism is. The actor also doesn’t seem to care that Anya Taylor-Joy, the voice actress of Princess Peach, is of Argentinian descent and lived in Argentina for several years as a child.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” on record
John Leguizamo’s criticisms don’t seem to have hurt the film’s success: Since launching on April 5, 2023, the animated spectacle has grossed nearly $377 million worldwide, making it the most successful start of the year – even surpassing the MCU blockbuster “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania”.
And another international record has also been broken: so far, 2019’s “Frozen 2” was the most successful start of an animated film at the worldwide box office with $ 228.2 million. The sympathetic mustache plumber has now pulverized this – although it should at least be mentioned here that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” had a clear advantage thanks to the extended Easter weekend.